Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Welcome to Ever Changing Technology.
I'm your host, Jim Bradfield. On this show, we explore how technology is shaping the way we work live and connect.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: And.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: And today's episode is all about how wireless networks and IT innovations are transforming businesses.
So joining me today is Ben Rosado. Now, Ben proudly served in the Army's elite 75th Ranger Regiment before launching his IT career in 2010.
He started out staging wireless access points in schools and he then founded Ranger Wi Fi Consulting.
Ben has dedicated his work to solving problems, empowering businesses and building stronger communities. His leadership, rooted in military excellence, now drives technology solutions that are making a nationwide impact.
Ben, thank you for your service and it's great to have you on the show.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Absolutely, Jim, appreciate you having me.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So, Ben, the challenge many businesses face is adapting to remote and hybrid work environments. Right.
Reliable wireless networks, that used to just be a thing, you know, when we did a hotspot or something like that. Now it's an absolute requirement. It's not even optional. It's the backbone of productivity. But organizations are still struggling to optimize that. So, you know, the numbers are showing wireless NETWORKING is now $120 billion industry. So what's driving this explosive growth in enterprise wireless?
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great question, Jim, and I think there's more, more than just one, one facet.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: But I like to go with the analogy of, you know, the highway analogy.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Imagine every highway in America is suddenly had to handle triple the traffic instead of adding more lanes.
We had to make everything exponentially faster and smarter.
That's exactly what happened to our, the network industry during the remote workforce revolution when we went from networks basically just handling day to day emails and occasional voip calls. Right now we're supporting full scale business operations, handling high definition video calls, cloud computing and real time collaboration.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Right?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, can you walk us through a real world example of how modern wireless transforms business operations? Something you guys worked on?
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
I think one of the best cases was the University of Michigan.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:05] Speaker C: We, we had 16,000 access points, Wi Fi6e access points that were deployed across 225 buildings.
We had to support 500 students in a single lecture hall, each with laptops, smartphone, and potentially additional smart gadgets like tablets or watches.
So really first they leveraged what we did there was we leveraged the 6 GHz within the WI FI6E spectrum.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: This is like a brand having a brand new highway that most devices can't even access yet, which means virtually no congestion Right. So really increases that performance there.
When you have 500 students trying to connect on older devices, It's a crowded 2.4 and 5 gigahertz spectrum.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: It's, it's going to increase, you know, decrease your performance. Right.
So the 6 gigahertz increased our lanes.
The next thing was the advanced beamforming.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: That 6 gigahertz and WI FI 60, not 6 gigahertz but WI FI 16 Pro.
The spatial, the spatial multiplexing.
Instead of broadcasting single or signals in all directions like a lighthouse, each AP is now has focus beams that direct to the specific devices or clients.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Imagine like a spotlight simultaneously happening, you know, in multiple different directions. And that's what this technology is enabling us to do.
The next approach there that we had was, and I think it kind of gets really interesting are the IoT devices.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Management and the same infrastructure.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: The campus has thousands of security cameras, environmental sensors, even know like maintenance robots.
So the network had to handle all of those and you know, the entire ecosystem was connected.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: So the results speak for themselves. Like seamless high definition videos for hundreds, thousands of users.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: They had to work.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: That's amazing. I, I mean that's, that's a really big one.
Now when we talk about that, for the role that wireless plays in enabling flexible and remote work setups, especially for those people that, you know, you want to put them at home, allow them to come in, maybe go in, you know, a couple of days a week, that kind of thing. So what does wireless do for us with that?
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So what that does is it, it.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: You know.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: It allows us to significantly like cut costs, I think, you know, compared to your traditional wired infrastructure.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: We're able to eliminate the need for extensive cabling installs and, and associate maintenance costs, you know, for air conditioning and everything else.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: So I think those were, that's kind of the key there.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Pretty, Yeah, I mean that's pretty comprehensive.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: That's a, that's a good, good shot at it.
Now how can small and medium businesses stay competitive as wireless technology evolves? What do they need to do?
[00:06:43] Speaker C: Sure. I think for, for staying competitive for the small medium businesses, I would say.
So I'm kind of like drawing a blank here with that one.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah, no problem. Don't worry about that. So, so, all right.
One of the things that you guys are starting to set up and work with people, what are you doing with the trends that businesses need to watch for in 2026 and beyond? You know, like what kind of applications really are going to require really ultra reliable wireless.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Yeah, the IoT is a big one there.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:33] Speaker C: And I think that's going to play into our Wi Fi 7 adoptions that all start happening and have started happening. I think we'll see larger implementations of those within 2026, late 2026, it'll kind of be the standard.
Then we've got the convergence. I think, you know, looking to the beyond, we've got the convergence of wireless and 5G, right. Businesses won't choose between them anymore.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: It's going to be a solution where we seamlessly integrate, you know, Both bands, right. 5G and the wireless.
So I think that's going to be a big one there.
You know, you're going to have uninterrupted application, you know, processes as they switch.
The next one is really driven AI driven network optimizations.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: We're really starting to see that become the standard.
Networks will be able to predict and automate, you know, predict usage patterns, automate configuration changes, stop, really stop problems from happening before they do.
We're already testing systems that can do packet captures. Like with an AI bot, right. As it sits on the network, those things are really going to help with optimization and reducing downtime.
So I think those are going to be the big things that would be key for trending in 2026.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm thinking, you know, what you're talking about is AI and you know, we've got things coming out with, you know, Wi Fi 7 has already just come out and already they're talking about Wi Fi 8 and they're talking about being ultra reliable wireless. But that's all got to be done with AI, right?
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely, 100%.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think what's going to happen there is, you know, when you're talking about it, all the things that you've been working on, you know, you work pretty much everywhere, just like we do and all of the things that you've been supporting, you know, like everything like from the Post office all the way through the military and all of those sites, you know, everybody's going to be looking at AI designs and AI development to make sure that what they're getting is what they really need for their applications now. Because things are going to really be running over wireless, right?
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
You know, the, the, the wireless environment is only going to grow from here and AI is going to drive it. We're already seeing it, you know, driving designs, you know, from the RF's perspective, we're seeing it AI being driven within the configurations themselves. So, you know, like, it's only going to get more intensive, you know, with the AI and I, I think it's going to help us. Right, you know, for sure.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And not only that, but also on things like, you know, the actual, not only design, but the actual testing of it and making sure that, you know, you can tell what's going on with the wireless. So you know how to fix it and tune it, right?
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Yep, yep, absolutely.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: All right, so we'll talk more about that in a little bit.
Coming up, we're going to dive into one of the most pressing challenges for every business today. That's going to be cybersecurity threats and how to defend against them. Stay with us.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this is Ever Changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
Well, welcome back to Ever Changing Technology.
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So I'm here again with Ben Rosado. And in this segment, we're going to focus on cyber security. With attacks increasing every year, especially against the small and medium businesses, protecting data has never been more critical.
Now, the challenge businesses face is that cyber attacks, especially ransomware, are targeting smaller organizations. They usually lack robust defenses. At the same time, AI is reshaping how both attackers and defenders operate.
So, Ben, the statistics are pretty alarming. 82% of ransomware attacks target small and medium businesses.
Why are SMBs such attractive targets?
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah, Jim, I mean, it's a simple, it's a simple numbers game here, right? Imagine if you're a criminal for a second, the easiest target, and you have two choices, right? Fort Knox with armed guards, security cameras, multiple layer protection, or a small bank with minimum security and treasures worth stealing, right?
That's the choice criminal cyber criminals are facing. You know, they've got your fortune 500 companies with dedicated security teams and lots of the latest technologies. And then you've got your SMBs with limited IT resources and infrastructure.
So the math is Stark, right? There's 34, 34ish million SMB businesses across America compared to just the 500 Fortune 500 companies, right?
But here's the key, right. 71% of businesses admit their cybersecurity defenses aren't strong enough.
And 74% of those have tried to manage it on their own without sufficient training or anything like that.
So cybercriminals have industrialized their operations in order to kind of Target those, those SMBs.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, and, and it's almost just not fair when you've got a, you know, a pretty impressive person hanging out using AI against a small company. Right.
So, you know, so what's been changing now for the cyber security landscape for both attackers and defenders?
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we hear it, it's the latest buzzword, right. AI.
AI is what we're witnessing here.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: We're witnessing the most significant evolution in cyber security since what probably the invention of the firewall.
And AI has become the ultimate double edged sword.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: On the attack side, cybercriminals are using AI to scale and refine their operations in ways that we never thought or seen before. But let's go with, what is it? We'll go with like one of our latest, like phishing email schemes.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: AI generated personalized phishing email that was virtually indistinguishable from a legitimate communication.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: These systems that they're using, the AI systems are, they're able to scrape data across social media posts, company websites, public records even to create these really sophisticated attacks.
And that's, that's pretty brutal there.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: I recently analyzed a phishing campaign where AI had scraped LinkedIn to identify the company's organization chart. They sent emails that appeared from like the CEO, the cfo, you know, trying to reference real acquisitions and asking for confidential financial information.
The AI even matched the, the writing style based on public interviews and company communications.
You know, that's where the real concern is getting.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: You know, AI powered attacks can adapt in real time.
If one approach doesn't work, it just goes to the next. And I think there's kind of like a, you know, it's learning, right. You know, it's learning how to be better in this process.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: So yeah. Now, you know, you mentioned several different things there. And what specific threats, you know, should they be most concerned about? I mean, seriously, what are they? Are they, do they need to train their people? Do they need to get more security? What, what are they? What do you think is the most important kinds of things?
[00:17:09] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So we are the biggest. Us, the user and the people are the biggest threat to your network.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:22] Speaker C: Most attacks that are effective are through, are through the exploitation of a person and that's, that's, you know, that's big. That's why training, reoccurring training, monthly training, you know, has to, has to be, you know, institutionalized into your business org, you know, like your framework and how you onboard employees, how you maintain employees has to be crucial.
You can always update your patches and things like that, but really it's the end user that, that needs to be focused on there.
So.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, so really that's kind of, it's really important to have training and actually somebody like you come in there, help analyze the system, right, so they know what they need to TR on, right?
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And, and it goes back to the, the, you know, AI is a double edged sword, right? You know, the defensive side.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: AI driven security.
You know, we can, because of AI, we're able to, you know, deploy and analyze traffic patterns, user behavior, you know, threat intelligence at a scale no human can do.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:39] Speaker C: So we're achieving what, 98 detection rates with 70% faster, faster times, you know, because AI can identify those anomalies right where we can't. So like putting AI into your system is really key there.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that, that seems like it's absolutely the requirement, you know. And so how do you see cybersecurity strategies evolving in the next few years? What are we looking for? I mean, it seems like it's only going to get worse on the attacking side, right?
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think what we're looking at from a threat standpoint is I think three critical threats that we're seeing across 20, 25.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: First is the email compromises with AI, right.
Then we have the, what we call like the smishing triad, the SMS fishing.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: And then we have the QR codes. You know, now we're getting QR code phishing and that's on the rise, you know, 25% this year, you know, because the exploits, these exploits are like blind spots to most users, right? Everybody's pretty aware of like SMS and, and the emails and things like that, you know, but they're not familiar with the QR scanning. Just the other day my wife and I, we were walking through a mall and she saw this guy wearing a shirt with a QR code and she's like, oh. I was like, don't you scan that?
You know, like it's like because, because you know, like what they're doing is, you know, you know, the code might int. Initially point to like a legitimate website for a scanning verification, but then, but then it redirects to the malicious site after the security Check passes.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:37] Speaker C: And we've seen these attacks targeting, you know, parking meters, restaurants, conference networking events, things like that, you know, and that's where it's key again, for the employees to get proper training, you know, and so I think what makes all these threats really dangerous is that again, as we talked about, they exploit that human side.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Right?
[00:21:02] Speaker B: So, so, so, Ben, let me, let me stop you there. We're running out of time on this segment, but we'll talk more about it. But I want to know right now, tell our viewers how they can learn more about Ranger Wi Fi and how it can help them strengthen cyber security. Where can they connect with you online?
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
We have a LinkedIn profile. I'm myself Ben Rosado. I'm on LinkedIn. Our company has a LinkedIn page. You can also visit us at rangerwifi.com or give us a call at 281-638-8835.
And we'd be happy to kind of connect. And what we can do is we can help navigate you through this ever changing technology world.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: That's awesome, man. And by the way, you know, I can make a personal recommendation for Ben. We've worked together for quite a while in different, all kinds of different projects. So he's really, really solid. So I'm next. We're going to explore how managed IT services are helping businesses cut costs while staying ahead in a rapidly changing tech world. Don't go away.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this is Ever Changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
So welcome back to Ever Changing Technology.
We've talked about wireless and cybersecurity. Now let's look at managed IT services.
For many businesses, outsourcing it has become the key to cutting costs and staying efficient without sacrificing innovation.
So the challenge businesses face is balancing technology needs with budgets.
Many think IT savings means just cutting corners.
But managed services often improve efficiency while reducing costs significantly.
So, Ben, you know, the data shows managed services can cut it costs by 25 to 45%, you know, even 50%. How is this even possible when the businesses still need to, you know, use the same technology?
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Yeah, Jim, that's a great question. And I think if, if we kind of look at running a modern business, right, you know, like an electrician, a plumber, even an account.
It's essentially what companies do when they handle it internally, right, without proper expertise or training.
They think they're saving money, but they're actually bleeding cash in ways that they didn't even realize.
So I think typically 50 employee company spends about $75,000 annually on software alone, which means they're throwing away $36,000 every year on applications nobo uses or needs.
And I think what, it goes like a lot deeper than that. When you're IT person who might be someone from accounting wearing multiple hats, you know, because they're such a small business, you know, they spend three days trying to fix a server issue and you're not, you're not just paying their salary, right? You're paying for the downtime that's impacted by that server, the delayed projects, frustrated customers, you know, and it just keeps going up.
I think we calculated a little while ago that a DIY it typically costs companies 40 to 50 or 40 to 60% more than they realize what the account hint expenses are, you know, and I think that, I think those numbers are staggering.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Right?
[00:24:43] Speaker B: That's amazing. Yeah, that's, that's the difference between, you know, being a business next year and going home. Right. I mean 100% now. So beyond the cost savings though, what, what operational improvements do you see from managed IT services? What, what else can you provide them to make things better for them?
[00:25:05] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think from what, from the standpoint of improving the services, I think specializations, right? When you, when you hire internal IT staff, you're paying full time salaries for expertise you might only need occasionally, right?
Cyber security specialists earning what, 95,000 annually might spend 60% of their time on routine tasks that they don't, that don't require specialized skills.
So through managed services, right, you're able to access the same level of expertise only when you need it, while routine tasks are handled by appropriately skilled technicians.
So, you know, we recently worked on a law firm that was paying $140,000 for a senior network administrator, right, who is performing responsibilities, you know, from password resets to printer troubleshooting, you know, things like that, you know, very, very rudimentary problems.
And through the managed services, you know, like we were able to bring that annual cost down to $85,000, right.
They, they now have access to senior network engineers, cyber security specialists, compliance, the experts help desk.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:37] Speaker C: All the essential, an essential depart, you know, like an essential IT department, right. With less, you know, by paying less, you know, that's, that's a huge savings there, you know.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: That's. Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. I mean it's got to be really heartening for these guys, right?
[00:26:59] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And then you have like the monitoring, you know, just being able to monitor the systems, right.
Having Somebody else, like watch your, watch your back, you know, as your network is down and, and, or, you know, you're down sleeping or whatever, you know, somebody's still monitoring, making everything. Sure, everything's running good.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So, well, you know, and then how do managed services adapt to the rapidly changing technology landscape, especially when they're being attacked by AI?
[00:27:31] Speaker C: Yes. Scalability is where it's managed, is where managed services really shine.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: It addresses the biggest challenges grown, you know, people face.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: There's the stair step problem of IT investment, I like to call it like traditional IT requires companies to make large capital investments in anticipation of growth and things like that.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: You buy servers, software license, infrastructure.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:01] Speaker C: Then you hope that your growth projections are accurate because if you grow faster than expected now you're scrambling to add capacity.
So I think really where the managed services creates that elastic IT capacity, it's as a, as companies add employees, we automatically provision additional users.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: And software licenses and everything else. So as they expand to new locations or as you expand as a business, you know, we extend security policies and network connectivity and support services to adapt to their technology needs. Right. Rather than them having to put all that infrastructure and stuff in place and hope that they're expanding, we just expand with them, as they tell us.
I think that's key.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: That's really well put, actually. And so, you know, based on that, you know, give us a real world example on a business that you transform with managed services.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: Yeah, we, you know, we started working with a software development company where we had 15 employees. Right now they have 180 employees across what, four cities and they've been acquired twice, I believe, and they expanded internationally and you know, throughout the entire growth journey.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: Their IT costs scaled with them.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:40] Speaker C: And so that was pretty pivotal there where we were able to help that company through their growth.
And just like, you know, like I was talking about, instead of them having to try to anticipate what they needed, just as they can methodically move through, we were able to move through with them.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: So that's, that's amazing. Do you actually attribute any of their growth to what you guys did with that? I mean, did you allow them to actually grow? Is that, is that what I'm hearing?
[00:30:12] Speaker C: Yeah, we were able to, we were able to support them on their journey that. And be flexible enough. So that way as they grew, we grew.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: And that allowed them to have everything in place. As they started branching out and, you know, acquiring more locations, we're able to keep that connectivity, you know, fluid, you Know, so that way they can continue to do business and everything ran smoothly. So I would say we definitely attributed to that growth.
You know, without that, they would have still grown, but you know, it, they could have had some pain, a little bit bigger pain points. And the process I think would have been slower.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's actually pretty impressive. I, I had no idea that you'd done that, but that's pretty amazing.
[00:31:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Now, so what advice would you give to leaders, you know, hesitant about looking at doing outsourcing for IT functions? You know, what, what do you tell them? I mean, how do you, is that story is, is pretty impressive, but what, what do you, how do you focus on that?
[00:31:21] Speaker C: Sorry, Jim, say that, say that one more time.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So what advice do you give leaders hesitant about outsourcing IT functions? You know, that story was very good. That's the same kind of thing. I would expect that I would tell people. But what do you say when somebody says, hey, I am not sure about it outsourcing. What, what do you tell them?
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say it's a good question. I, I think for the people that are wanting to outsource or scared to outsource.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Look at the numbers.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: You know, like, look at why the numbers with the growth of IT and the MSP space, right.
They're growing. And look at the cost of, you know, hiring employees and training and everything else. Getting the qualified engineers.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. So I mean, essentially what you're saying is you guys can give them a platform and a base to, in order to approve, in order to grow, that will cut their costs actually.
[00:32:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, and that's, that's actually pretty remarkable. I mean, that's, that's, that's as good as designing an excellent wireless network. I mean, if you're cutting people's cost to get them to be able to grow, I mean, that's, that's very impressive. That's something you need to make sure that you're telling your customer base that we need to make sure you're advertising that.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Yeah, sure, sure, absolutely.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: So, you know, coming up, we're going to wrap up our conversation by talking about compliance and the future of wireless in regulated industries. That's from healthcare to finance. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this is Ever Changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
Welcome back to Ever Changing Technology.
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Now in this final segment, we're going to tackle compliance and the future of wireless in heavily regulated sectors. That's like healthcare, finance, defense, that kind of thing. With new rules and billions of IoT devices, the stakes have never been higher.
The challenge businesses face is navigating strict compliance requirements, you know, while keeping up with rapidly evolving wireless and IoT technology.
So Ben 2025 has brought us so far major regulatory updates. New HIPAA rules, PCI, DSS 4.0, CMMC 2.0.
How do these impact wireless infrastructure decisions?
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Yeah, Jim, these aren't just updates, right? It's a fundamental shift that we're seeing. We're witnessing the most significant regulatory transformation in cybersecurity since the original HIPAA implementation back in what I think the early 2000s. These aren't just minor updates, they're represented fundamental shifts.
You know, the new HIPAA security rule requires healthcare organizations to maintain comprehensive, you know, technology assets inventories with like, you know, just annual updates and everything else. This means that the healthcare providers can no longer treat WI fi as a simple connectivity utility.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: It's now a regulated medical device pathway that requires clinical grade reliability and security.
So I think with the DSS4, you know, this introduces the customized approaches that allow organizations really to demonstrate the security equivalence through innovation to innovative technologies, but also mandates the continuous monitoring in real time detection.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:07] Speaker C: For any business that processes your credit cards, you know, things like that, right. It's all virtual retail operations.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: So the wireless network must provide audibility and security evidence. Now the cmc, cmmc, this is a big one and I think I was at a cyber security conference last week in D.C. and they were saying the, the CMMC standards goes live, what next year? I think everybody's got to be compliant. I think next year, but they know they're going to have some stragglers.
I might be a little off on that day, but I think it was next year. And it streams three cyber security maturity levels.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: And, but the real change I think is to the wireless infrastructure, right? Most it must support requirements from day one of the implementation and it's not. So it's no longer an afterthought like it has been in the past.
Defense contractors can no longer just like retrofit security on existing networks.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: They have to. The compliancy has to be built into the foundation. And I think that's a big one there.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's.
That actually seems like an awful lot of work.
Yeah, I mean, so you're talking about, you know, IoT devices, you know, reaching over 20 billion.
So how do compliance requirements adapt to this world? I mean, how do they keep up?
[00:37:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I like this question.
And there's lots of ways to it. It's about device to cloud attestation, I think, in software, billing materials and mandates. Every IoT device has to have verification before the network connection.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:00] Speaker C: And so private 5G networks are becoming essential.
The market grew from 2.6 billion, I think, in 24 to. But I think they're projecting over like, you know, 3 billion by 2037.
And so we're seeing this like quantum safe SIM cards being developed. I don't know if you've seen that, but that's all developed to protect against future quantum computing threats.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: We're now talking quantum and that's scary to me.
But the wireless network isn't just connectivity again.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:38] Speaker C: It's compliance enforcement at that point. So I think, I think really that's how they're going to be able to adapt.
So.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that.
It seems almost overwhelming. I mean, seriously.
So you know, what challenges do businesses face when securing IoT devices within their compliance frameworks?
[00:39:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, for.
I'm sorry.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: It's okay.
Let me, let me say it again. We'll see challenges do businesses face when securing the IoT devices within their compliance frameworks to make sure that everything complies.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the big thing here is taking the security of IoT devices.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:46] Speaker C: This is where our zero trust really comes into play and the adoption of zero trust.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: So that IoT device might not be able to be secured in your traditional manner. So what we want to do is we want to kind of build security around it.
So that way it's like, okay, if that device becomes secure or, you know, compromised, can it get out to the Internet? Where can it get out? Does it. Does it have authorization or is it able to get act. Gain access in a different path? And do we care?
[00:40:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: You know, this device just has network connectivity. All the control systems around it are now containing that. That. So if it does become compromised, it still can't Go anywhere. I think that's where zero trust kind of comes into play with securing IoT.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So, so who in your, how are you guys helping organizations plan for that long term compliance and innovation of all those things?
[00:40:45] Speaker C: So great question for the, I think the key there is, is being on the inside, right. Knowing like what their goals are, what their future goals are. So that way we can guide them, navigate them through that framework.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:06] Speaker C: Through their framework to maintain those long term compliances.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: That's where our managed services comes into play.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:12] Speaker C: We're able to kind of monitor like what's happening in their, in their industry.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:18] Speaker C: You know, that, you know, from a compliance standpoint and beyond, you know, so that way we can stay in front of it, you know, and, and plan the roadmaps of the growth for the, you know, 3.0, the CMMC or other standards that start coming out as, as we, you know, continue to revolutionize the industry.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: All right, so now talking about that, looking ahead five years, how will wireless technologies evolve in the heavily regulated industries?
[00:41:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, I think the, the three major trends, right. Are first your private 5G and wireless convergence.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: That's the best solution that will let the best, excuse me, the best solutions that will leverage both technologies interoperably. You know, those will be huge.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: The next one is, you know, network slicing will create isolated virtual, virtual lanes with specific security policies and different data types.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:29] Speaker C: So that's, that's the next big one. Third, I would say AI driven network optimizations.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:37] Speaker C: You know, will provide predictive compliancy compliance monitoring.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:43] Speaker C: So we're, we're already seeing pilots where companies achieve like 5 to 10 ROI over the 5 year period, you know, through predictive maintenance and quality assurance benefits by using AI adoption.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: So yeah. Okay, that's pretty thorough. That's a very good look forward. I appreciate that view.
So Ben Rosado, this has been very valuable.
Where can people follow your work and continue the conversation with you?
[00:43:16] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. You can look us up on LinkedIn, Ben Rosado or follow our page, Ranger Wi Fi Consulting.
We're also on Facebook as well. Look up Ranger Wi Fi and the other place is our website, rangerwifi.com you can look us up there. You can schedule a introductory call. And the last one, all good old phone system. 281-638-8835.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: Awesome man.
And I can personally recommend this guy, man. He's, he's these guys.
You know, you really need to, you really need to get out there and get with Ben and his team. This, this is going to be super valuable for you guys.
Now, Ben, thanks for bringing your expertise and perspective to today's conversation. You know, from optimizing wireless networks and preventing cyber attacks to cutting costs through managed services and navigating compliance, you know, you've shown us that technology is constantly evolving.
But with the right leadership, businesses can not only keep up well, they can also thrive. So for our viewers, I hope today's discussion gives you both confidence and clarity and how to approach your own technology decisions.
I'm Jim Bradfield, and this has been ever changing Technology on NOW Media tv, where we make sense of the innovations shaping tomorrow. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.
